Simple, tasty recipes of the world – tabbouleh & chicken kebabs

Tabbouleh is a salad that hails from the Middle East, made with bulgar wheat, tomatoes, chopped parsley, mint, lemon juice, shallots, spices and olive oil. You’ll find tabbouleh in numerous Middle Eastern regions, including Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and more. There are numerous ways of preparing this classic salad, but here’s the right way, as decreed by one of our favourite chefs. We’ve also added (and adapted) a recipe for pomegranate chicken kebabs – which we think would be pretty darn good on a barbeque.

Put the bulgar in a fine sieve and place under the cold tap until the water runs clear and most of the starch has been removed. Transfer it to a bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into 0.5cm dice (a small serrated knife is the best tool for this job) and add to the bowl, along with any juices. Chop the shallots as finely as you can and add to the bowl.

Now get ready to chop. Take a few stalks of parsley and pack them together tightly. Use a large, very sharp knife to trim off the end of the stalks, then chop the remaining stems and leaves as finely as possible and no wider than 1mm. (If you can’t achieve that first go, go over the chopped parsley again, this time with the heel of the blade.) Add the parsley to the bowl.

Pick the mint leaves, pack a few together tightly, chop as finely as the parsley and add to the bowl. Finally stir in the allspice, lemon juice to taste, olive oil, salt and pepper. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve at room temperature.

Mix the lemon juice, spices, garlic and pomegranate molasses / seeds in a large bowl. Add enough olive oil to bring the mixture together as a paste and season with a little black pepper. (You could also try adding the pomegranate seeds afterwards over the kebabs and salad and skip the whole molasses thing. Why not add a little bit of crumbly goat’s cheese? Yummy!)

Add the chicken to the marinade mixture, turning to coat the chicken thighs in the mixture. Set aside to marinate for at least 3 hours.

To cook the chicken, soak 4-8 wooden skewers in cold water for 10 minutes, then shake dry.

Thread the marinated chicken onto skewers. Heat a griddle pan over a high heat, then cook the chicken skewers until golden-brown and cooked through – but still juicy.

Read the original tabbouleh recipe here, and the original recipe for the chicken kebabs here. Happy cooking!

Which countries inspire your cooking? Which foods have you discovered on your travels? Share your recipes with us in the comments below or get in touch at blog@onthegotours.com.

Published by OTG Team

We're an international team of travellers based all over the world from London to Brisbane, Vancouver to Johannesburg, Auckland to Sydney. We're an eclectic mix of English, Australian, Indian, Canadian, Polish, South African and New Zealanders in the team and we love to travel the world, be it for work, pleasure or often both. Our collective travel experiences are extensive and through our blog we share all our adventures and insights with you - we hope you enjoy our posts!

The On The Go Tours team

Our blog – THE INSIDE TRACK – features our latest adventures, plenty of useful travel tips, fabulous travel photos and, we hope, lots more stuff to whet your appetite for your next holiday. There are regular contributions from all of as at On The Go Tours as well as from travellers from the far corners of our planet.